"Delta" and Stuff (Maintenence & Backups)

Hi!

Chkdsk seems to be a decent enough disk checking utility and can be used to do a surface scan too.
You'll find on Win2000/XP that you have to reboot to actually start the Chkdsk process as it wants exclusive access to the partition which it can't do whilst Windows is running.

One of the beauties of NTFS is that it keeps a transaction log of what actions it has to do to the disk which aids recovery and is meant to make disk corruption far less likely. It also means that the system can easily flag whether the particular partition is in need of a scan or not on each bootup.

Best wishes,

Andrew

This might be an interesting read... its good ol' M$'s advice or maintaning your HDD's


http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tre...b_cnc_jmmb.asp


GP

Interesting. I guess I'll have to activate a NTFS file system and take a look at that abit more. :)

Added to this post from TechNet:

Use the Chkntfs command to determine whether volumes are flagged as dirty. Daily Running Chkntfs can help you identify volumes that have file system errors. If a volume is flagged as dirty, Windows XP Professional runs Chkdsk when the computer is restarted. You can, however, run Chkdsk immediately or postpone Chkdsk by using the Chkntfs command, although it is recommended that you run Chkdsk as soon as possible. To assess the damage without repairing the volume, you can run Chkdsk in read-only mode.

If I decided to run defrag overnight, and closed all programs that were running (which would include ZA Pro) would I be at risk of an attck, even though I am not actively using my broadband connection?

Hi!

Just a note on the chkntfs command.
If you run it with the switch /D, then that restores the default behaviour of scanning any drives flagged as dirty on bootup.

More reasons for NTFS:
It dynamically remaps bad clusters.
It has the ability to limit access to files by user/group. Also the ability to audit who accesses them too.
Supports file encryption or compression.
It has multiple copies on the disk of critical data structures to prevent data loss should one get damaged.
There also isn't the same cluster size issue seen on FAT drives.

Unless you need a Win9x OS to be able to access the files on your partition, then NTFS is the one to go for!

Gizandpop, if your broadband connection is open, then keep your firewall up too or else you are at risk.

Best wishes,

Andrew

Gizandpop... just disconnect the cable from the PC to the modem.
You can then turn off the firewall. That's better than simply turning off the modem because some cable ISP's regularly ping their customers modems to test connectivity.

Quote:

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Originally posted by greengoose1
Interesting. I guess I'll have to activate a NTFS file system and take a look at that abit more. :)

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Just use PM8 to convert it. Don't take long to do.

Of course to find the chkdsk errors and what was done to fix it, you have to be in admin mode.
To find the files you have to be able to see the system files. To do that I R-click the Start button and select Explore.
Explorer open, then go to Tools in the menu and select Folder options.
Select the View tab.

Under "Hidden files and Folders"
Put a check in "Show hidden files and folders"
Drop down to lines and take the check out of "Hide Protected system operating files (Recommended)
Apply and ok out as required.
Go to Start, search , files and folders, use Found.* to locate them. I believe I remember that right.

Now the chkdsk does take of C: on a reboot, but the other partitions and hdds can be done while in Windows.

It is not as robust as scandisk, but seems to get the job done. Want to have a bit of fun. Use diskedit and make some crosslinked files, then run chkdsk.
THEN Read the Found* reports afterward.

EDIT: When I run Check disk (chkdsk) , It converted some files as hidden folders names FOUND000 and FOUND001 that all containing files in extensions as File0001.chk. File0002.chk, File0003.chk, File0004.chk and so on up to hundreds of files.

These can be deleted and if you wish to read them, it can be done using notepad.

Good day all,

Ridgerunr, thank you for the sites. I didn't know of Waterwheel and it looks great. There simply isn't enough time in the day to do all of the reading I want to. (Can't one of you tweak something somewhere and make a day last 48 hours? Only the one's I'm not working though!)

Gizandpop, it's the thought of tinkering with my 'good' PC that makes me a little nervous, but I know the precautions to take and once I get in there, I'm sure I'll be fine.

Greengoose, I did run Chkdsk on the old one a while back (I think that's what it was) and that was fine. I'll certainly defrag it though (searching my brain for the old DOS commands.) However, I know you want this thread to be about maintenance and not computer repair and building so....

I run Chkdsk and defrag when I think of it (once a month or so.) Backups, well that's my issue at hand, getting some done. After a couple of months of research and trying different firewalls, I settled on ZoneAlarm, then bought the Pro version because I thought it was deserving of some money spent on it. AVG, Spybot and Ad-Aware are run every couple of days (nothing serious ever found.) In addition, Spyware Blaster and Browser Hijack Blaster are always running. I believe I'm a little more security conscious than the average home user, perhaps due to all of the reading I've done on the topic (I've been called paranoid more than once!) but so far it has paid off. I'm generally happy with how my system runs, although it'll never be fast enough. Once I get this back-up issue solved, I want to turn the third machine into a sort of test site, since I love to try out new apps. (Aside - my brother has told me I can have his machine, since he's out of the country for a year working, but I haven't been able to go get it yet. Of course, then I'll need a router to get it on-line and I have no idea if it has an ethernet card in it.) That was off-topic again, sorry.

Will check back in again later...gotta do some mundane things like shop for food. Thanks again everyone, learning tons here!
Caroline

Ref: To Found.*

To locate the folder, go to my computer, open C:\ and once you have system files and folders unhidden you can see the folder.

Another thought on security is the user themselves. Use sites that are known and don't open Email except those you know. The only thing you can't control are the EMail attachments to the Emails and if you open one with a virus - but that can be averted by scanning them. One other point. A new virus most times does not have a fix in place. (the Virus has to be anyalized before a fix can be programmed.). In other words wise use and where you surf using your computer can and will keep you out of trouble. :)

All this talk of chkdsk has reminded me of something else - I added some switches to my boot.ini file (it's a hidden system file in the root folder of C:, so you need to set your Folder Options accordingly). It can be opened in Notepad, and it's a good idea to make a backup copy of it before modifying it.

Adding " /sos" without the quotes after " /fastdetect" will show the drivers being loaded during boot, and even better gives a very quick check of all volumes during boot and if it finds a problem will allow you to run chkdsk/autochk there and then.

Adding " /bootlog" will create a boot up log which can be used to indentify any boot problems. It's called Ntbtlog.txt and lives in the %systemroot%\Windows folder in WinXP or %systemroot%\Winnt folder in Win2000.

Adding these switches only adds about 15 seconds to the boot time. Here is a copy of my boot.ini from my XP machine as an example:

[boot loader]
timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /sos /bootlog
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

Changing the timeout=30 , default to 10 makes a nice difference too. As long as you are not multibooting.

What is the timeout value for?

In a multi OS boot situation, it gives you time to select which OS you want to boot to. You would be surprised how fast 10 seconds is in that situation.

The timeout value is how long the mutiboot screen will display for before the default OS starts to load. Of course if you press the Enter key before that value is reached then the OS loads immediately.